Handle for carriers



July 6, 1954 w. A. RINGLER HANDLE FOR CARRIERS Filed June 13, 1950 a y IIN VEN TOR. MLL/AM ,4 Elva/.515

ATTORNEYS.

Patented July 6, 1954 UNTI D STATES ,ATENT OFFICE 2,682,972 HANDLE FORCARRIERS Williamv A.1Ringler, Wayne, Pa., assignor to The Gardner Boardand Carton Co., .Middletown,

Ohio, acorporation of Ohio Application June 13, 1950, Serial No.167,807.;

2 Claims.

Myinvention has to do with the provision of a handlemember forknock-down or collapsible paperboard bottle carriers; an-exemplary oneof which is 'set forth in my copending application Serial No. 780,266,filed October 16; 1947, and ention'in connection with the exemplarycarrier' shown in my, c opending'application, it beingunderstood-'thatits utility is'not confined thereto.

In my copending" application I have provided a bottle carrierincluding'a body having side and end walls for surrounding an assemblyof bottles, a central longitudinal partition element and lateralpartition elements extendingbetween the side walls and the centrallongitudinal partition element; and'a wire handle element "havingreversely bent legs for engaging the central longitudinal partition, thecentral longitudinal, partition being slotted-to receive the handleelement, with .the legs passing through theslots in the centrallongitudinal partition and, serving to clamputogether thecentralflongitudinal partition and the attachment portions of thelateral partitio'n elements extending. along the central longitudinalpartition lment. The endwalls, bottom portions, and laterali'partitionelements of the carrier, are 'mediall'y. s'coredso that the structurewill collapse. Also, the slots in the central longitudin'al partitionare elongated and extend from near the .bottom of the partition upwardlytoward the'iuppr edge thereof; and the reversely bent portions of thehandle are of 'a length somewhat greater than the length of the slots.The handle element is associatedwith the carrier by passingthejreversely bent endsthereof through the slots while the carrier .isin collapsed or semi-collapsed condition, in which condition the lowerextremities of the handle will move downwardly beyond thebottom edge ofthe central longitudinal partition-into'the well formed by one of themedially scored'rbottom"forming portions, which collapses downwardly onitsimedian-score line. This permitsrthereversely bent portions of thehandle,

whiohlare 'longer than the: slots, to pass through the slots, and hencewhen the handle is drawn upwardly the reversely bent leg will engage thecarrier body on the side opposite from the bail and leg portions ofthe-handle; thus bringing the handle into clamping, engagement with thecentral longitudinal partition. Due to the fact that the slots areelongated, the handle may be raised until the lowerrmost, closed end of'the handle formed by the reversely bent portions contacts the upperends of the slots: The carrier is so designedthat in this positionthebail portion of the handle will lie above the tops of the bottlescarried in the carrier. However, the handle by the same token may bedepressed until the looped portions thereof "rest onthe-lower ends of.the

slots, in whichcondition the-bail of the handle is carried below thetops-of the bottles and hence" a plurality of the carriers maybe stackedone upon theother without interference fromtheir respective handlemembers. i

While the carrier: and handle combination which I have just describedissatisfactory under most' conditionsof use and-has been widely acceptedby the trade, it'ha-s beenzfound-in practice that under certaincircumstances the handle member can tilt orcantzto-ione side'when'it isin the depressed condition- This tilting may, if

thecarrier is empty, extend to the point of virtual disengagement. The"tilting may occur because the handle has been thrust downwardifrom itsuppermost "position with undue force; but the tendency is increased byany looseness. in the gripping action' of the reversely bent portions of.the

legs. v

The tilting of the handles referred to above is of little or noconsequenceunder ordinary conditions of use, butiwhere the'carriers arebeing machine loaded a misaligned handle will, in some instances, bestruck by one or more of the bottles as they are being loaded into thecarrier, thereby misaligning the. bottles-or otherwise causing theloading operation to be interrupted. Again, where the carriersare'beingautomatically unloaded, as when the empty bottles are-returned to thebottling works, it is essential to prevent any tilting or misalignmentof the handleelem'ents since the equipment with which such carriers areunloaded includes closely spaced hold-down bars for the carriers andbetween which the'handle members are moved. Ifthehandle member is out ofalignment, it will strike one of the hold-down rods and cause theunloading device to be jammed. Machine loading and unloadingoperationsare normally carried on with: the carriers in bottle crates."Y

It is therefore a principal object of my invention to provide a handlemember which will coact with the carrier in such a way that it will notbecome misaligned with respect to the carrier in either the up or downpositions or at any intermediate position.

It is a further object of my invention to provide a handle member whichnot only will maintain its alignment with respect to the carrier butwill also retain all of the attributes and advantages of the handlemember of my copending application, such as its depressibility forstacking purposes, its simplicity of construction and mode of attachmentto the carrier, and its ability to clamp together the various parts ofthe carrier body.

It is also an object of-my invention to provide a combination of apaperboard bottle carrier and a handle member in which the handle membercannot become displaced with respect to the carrier.

These and other objects of my invention which will be set forthhereinafter or which will be apparent to the skilled worker in the artupon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that construction andarrangement of parts of which I shall now describe an exemplaryembodiment.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective View with parts broken away showing thecarrier in a partial stage of erection and the handle member in processof being engaged therewith.

Figure 2 is a side elevational view with parts broken away showing thehandle member associated with the central partition of the carrier, thehandle member being in its extended or carrying pos tion.

Figure 3 is similar to Figure 2 but shows the handle in the depressed orstacking position.

Figure 4 is a partial sectional View taken along the line 44 of Figure 3and showing the reversely bent legs of the handle passing through theslots and in engagement with the central partition member.

Figure 5 is an enlarged view of one of the handle legs in the positionshown in Figure 3, the enlarged view illustrating the relative sizes ofthe slot and the deformation in the main leg portion of the handle.

Figure 6 is a perspective view showing the handle member.

Briefly, in the practice of my invention I provide a handle member forassociation with the slotted central partition element of a paperboardcarrier, the handle member comprising in general a bail portion, legportions extending from the bail portion and terminating in reverselybent portions for effecting clamping engagement with the centralpartition element. To prevent the handle member from tipping or becomingmisaligned with respect to the carrier, I provide deformations orindentations on the main legs of the carrier which are slightly widerthan the slots in the central partition elements, the deformationserving to prevent the legs of the carrier from slipping through theslots in the central partition element and thereby causing the handlemember to become misaligned. While the deformations or indentations aresuch that they will prevent accidental passage of the legs through theslots, they are not such as to prevent the legs from being initiallypassed through the slots when the handle is associated with the carrier,nor to prevent its deliberate dissociation therefrom should that bedesired.

For a further and fuller description of my invention, reference is madeto Figure l of the drawings wherein I have shown a collapsiblepaperboard carrier comprising side walls I and 2, end walls 3 and 4,lateral partition elements 5, 6, I and 8, and a central longitudinalpartition 9. The carrier is collapsible on the median score lines 10 andH in the end walls, [2, l3, I4 and 15 in the lateral partitions, and I6and I! in the bottom forming portions 18 and [9. The centrallongitudinal partition element 9 is provided with slots 20 and 2| forthe reception of thehandle member. The slots 20 and 2| are preferablyformed also in the attachment portions 22, 23, 24 and 25 of the lateralpartition elements. The slots 20 and 2| are elongated and extendvertically with respect to the central longitudinal partition element.The length of the slots will be determined by the degree ofdepressibility desired in the handle member. It is preferable to makethe slots of a length such that the handle member when in contact withthe upper edges of the slots will extend above the height of the bottlesin the carrier; and when in contact with the lower ends of the slotswill lie below the tops of the bottles.

My novel handle member is illustrated in Figure 6 of the drawing andcomprises a bail portion 26, leg portions 21 and 28, reversely bent legportions 29 and 30 and deformations or indentations 3i and 32 in the legportions 21 and 28.

In the embodiment illustrated the bail portion 2% and the leg portions21 and 28 define the general plane of the handle member, the reverselybent leg portions 29 and 30 extending substantially parallel to the legs21 and 28 and lying in a plane paralleling but spaced from the generalplane of the handle. The deformations 3i and 32 lie in the general planeof the handle member and are inwardly directed, although it will beunderstood that the deformations may be outwardly directed or one may beinwardly directed and the other outwardly directed, without departingfrom the spirit of my invention.

The manner in which the handle member is associated with the carrier canbe seen in Figure 2 wherein the leg portions 21 and 28 are shownextending through the slots 20 and 21 respectively, the lower ends ofthe leg extending into the well formed by the partially collapsed bottomwall [8. If it were not for the collapsibility of the bottom wallportions, it would be difiicult if not impossible to pass the legs ofthe handle member through the slots since the reversely bent portions 29and 3B are longer than the slots 20 and 2 I.

The relationship and relative size of the reversely bent legs withrespect to the slots can be seen in Figure 4 of the drawings wherein thereversely bent leg portion 30 is shown to be longer than the slot 2 I.

In Figure 2 the handle member is shown in extended position and inclamping engagement with the central partition element. It will be notedthat in this position the lowermost closed central longitudinalpartition; However, when the handle member is depressed to the positionshown in Figure 3, the reversely bent leg portions 29 and 30 willcontact the central longitudinal partition for only a short distanceabove the slots 20 and 2|. It is in this position that the ordinaryhandle member will be subject to misalignment. However, with my presentconstruction, the deformations 3| and 32 act to prevent the leg portions21 and 28 from passing through the slots. As can be clearly seen inFigure 5, the deformations are slightly wider than the width of theslots through which the handle member is passed and hence will normallyprevent the legs from passing from one side of the slots to the other.Thus tilting of the handle toward the position shown in Figure 1 isprevented. Tilting in the opposite direction is rendered substantiallyimpossible by engagement of the legs proper with the central partitionassembly above the slots. Of course, the legs ma be pushed through theslots upon the application of pressure, the boxboard yieldingsufficiently to permit the deformations to pass through the slots. Suchpressure would, however, be exerted only when the carrier is initiallyerected and would not be applied during normal handling and use of thecarrier.

For the purposes of m invention, I have found it preferable to locatethe deformations 30 and 3| at points intermediate the ends of the legportions 21 and 28 and preferably in such position that the deformationswill be adjacent the slots 20 and 2| when the handle member is in thedepressed or lowered condition. Thus the deformations in a preferredembodiment of my invention will lie opposite the reversely bent legportions of the handle.

It will of course be apparent that modifications may be made in thelocation and direction of the deformations without departing from thespirit of my invention, and I do not intend to be limited in theirspecific location other than in the manner set forth in the claims whichfollow.

Having thus described my invention in an exemplary embodiment what Iclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a bottle carrier, the combination of a paperboard carrierincluding a central partition having elongated slots therein, said slotsbeing vertically disposed in spaced apart relation with their upper endscoterminous and spaced downwardly from the top edge of said centralpartition, and a wire handle having a bail portion and a pair of mainlegmembers extending downwardly from the ends of said bail portion, saidbail portion extending longitudinally of said central partition, saidmain leg members each having a first portion which is straight, a secondportion which is offset from the axis of said first portion in thedirection of the length of said central partition by a distance greaterthan the width of said slots, and a third portion which is straight andhas its axis lying in prolongation of the axis of said first portion,the combined depth of said second and third main leg portions being lessthan the length of said slots, said main leg members terminating attheir lower ends in reversely bent leg members extending upwardly inparallelism to the first and third portions of said main leg members andspaced laterally therefrom by a distance substantially equal to thethickness of said central partition, said reversely bent leg membersbeing greater in length than said slots, said reversely bent leg membersextending through said slots with said main leg members and saidreversely bent leg members contacting opposite sides of said centralpartition in the areas above said slots, said handle being movable froma lower position in which the lowermost ends of said reversely bent legmembers contact the'bottoms of said slots and the offset portions ofsaid main leg members lie opposite said slots, thereby acting to preventthe main leg members from passing through said slots, to a raisedcarrying position in which the lowermost ends of said reversely bentlegs contact the tops of said slots.

2. A wire handle for engagement with the central partition of a bottlecarrier, said handle comprising a horizontally disposed bail portion anda pair of main leg members extending downwardly from the ends of saidbail portion, said main leg members each having a first portion which isstraight, a second portion which is offset from the axis of said firstportion in the direction of the axis of said bail portion, and a thirdportion which is straight and has its axis lying in prolongation of theaxis of said first portion, said main leg members terminating at theirlower ends in reversely bent leg members which are spaced laterally fromthe said main leg members and extend upwardly in parallelism to thefirst and third portions of said main leg members, said reversely bentleg members terminating upwardly adjacent the first portions of saidmain leg members whereby the offset portions of said mainleg members lieoppositesaid reversely bent leg members intermediate the ends thereof.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSSchumann Feb. 20, 1951

